North Star Legacy Communities: Gadsden County Heritage
North Star Legacy Communities: Gadsden County Heritage
Award of Excellence
2023 APA Florida Project Award - Student Project
About this project
Gadsden County Heritage: A North Star Legacy Communities’ Project represents the second iteration of the North Star Legacy Communities project series and stems from the partnership of Legacy Communities of North Florida, Inc., the FSU Barnebey Planning and Development Lab, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, and the Florida Department of State. Following a resounding success in Jackson County in 2020, Gadsden County Heritage successfully expanded the framework for conducting historic preservation and economic activities in Black communities in north Florida, aiming to preserve the rich stories of rural Black residents and bolster economic prospects in the region.
Legacy communities are defined as tightly-knit communities formed by enslaved and emancipated people that served as the primary hub for economic activity and social support in a nation that actively sought to dismantle their prosperity. Historically excluded through the formal planning process, these communities have often been left to flounder from lack of action, and deep veins of mistrust have understandably been formed from decades of mistreatment and disregard. This project seeks to raise the profile of these legacy communities and recognize the validity and legitimacy of these stories while also investing in long-term economic development by highlighting local Black-owned businesses.
The team collaborated through extensive community outreach, surveying, attendance at community events and public meetings, conducting interviews of legacy community residents, and site visits of historic spaces in Gadsden County. The team produced several high quality deliverables: a mapbook outlining case, site, and community profiles as well as the current demographic and economic conditions in Gadsden County; discovery and mapping of the locations of legacy communities; an interactive Esri ArcGIS Story Map exploring Gadsden County history; a photo library; an eChamber of Commerce website with economic opportunity database and tutorial video for users; and an engagement video detailing the process of developing the Gadsden County Heritage project.
This project not only acts as an adaptable framework for preservation and economic development of other historically Black neighborhoods and legacy communities, but also represents an investment in furthering the self-sufficiency and prosperity that have long been hallmarks of legacy communities. By preserving the stories of these communities’ residents, current and future generations will have tangible keepsakes of the lives of the residents. This project moves beyond the traditional planning framework and has created living documents these communities can rely on for years to come that champion Black-owned businesses in the county.